An industrial automation system, which is used for an industrial process plant, includes different types of systems. The different types systems are for different purposes and there may be more than one system for each type. Examples of those purposes are process control and safety control. Each type of the systems may be configured or set up in an engineering phase, then used in an operation phase and updated in a maintenance phase.
At each phase, engineering, operation and maintenance, each system may have separate tool and database. The tool may include, but not limited to, a computing device installed with a software and used to complete task in each phase. In an example, a configuration software is a tool which is used to complete a task to define a control logic for a controller in the plant.
A user need to find use each separate tool to identify a history of changes for a hardware component, such a field device or equipment, when there is a problem with the hardware component. From the identified history of changes, the user can trace the changes in the history to solve the problem.
In a typical plant, a first engineer submits a change request for approval before the change is performed. The change may include, not limited to, allocating an identification tag to a hardware component, define parameters in a control logic. A second engineer performs the change when the approval has been given for the change request. A third engineer then checks the system to confirm that the change has been completed.
A lot of manual efforts and logistics are needed to keep records of change requests and completion of the change requests. More manual effort and time are need to check and determine if the change requests have been completed. In one change request, there may be a plurality of modification items, changes which are required. This is especially for an industrial automation system which includes, not limited to, a complex network of components. Each component may have a plurality of parameters and corresponding values.